Malir — a district cobbled together to carve out electoral win

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MALIR is one of the seven districts in the Karachi division that has always been considered as a stronghold of the PPP. In fact, the district was carved out of Karachi’s East and West districts in 1996 by the then government of the PPP.

The rural areas of the two districts, where the majority of residents are Sindhis and Baloch, were amalgamated to create the Malir district in what PPP’s detractors believed to be an attempt to break the electoral dominance of the then Mohajir Qaumi Movement, now known as Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P).

However, divisions were abolished during Musharraf’s era and Karachi was declared one district and the 2002 and 2008 general elections were held on that basis. The PPP government had restored Malir and other city districts in 2011.

It may be noted that Malir Town, one of the 25 towns in Karachi, is not part of district Malir as it falls in the territorial jurisdiction of district Korangi.

Read more here.

A commuter rides past election campaign posters of the PPP in Karachi on Jan 31, 2024. — AFP
A commuter rides past election campaign posters of the PPP in Karachi on Jan 31, 2024. — AFP

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